


End of an era

by anxioussquirrel



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, POV Second Person, just a tiny drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-28 22:00:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20433137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anxioussquirrel/pseuds/anxioussquirrel
Summary: Draco knows exactly when his childhood ended.





	End of an era

The day your childhood ended? You know exactly when that was. You can pinpoint the exact moment when you looked around and knew, with stark clarity, that you would never be the same again. And it was not what anyone might think at all.

Because it was not the first time you stood among the Dark Lord’s faithful servants, barely 15 and proud of being allowed at the grown-up table. Nor was it months later, as you knelt with your arm bared to His wand, terrified and in pain, yet still so eager to please your father; so desperate to be the good son you’d never quite managed to be.

It wasn’t even that night on the Astronomy Tower, where you had a man’s task, but a boy’s cowardice. Where you let the adults fix things for you, yet again.

No, your moment was just after. In the Great Hall, as the conquering little army you’d let into Hogwarts strode through the heart of the ancient castle. Your crazy aunt, running on the long table with that mad cackle and fluidity that was like a dance, fucking things up in her wake: tableware and windows and candles, leaving cold and destruction with every step, and you almost seized with the sudden desire to hex her.

You paused, then. You stopped and turned as the others pushed forward, and your breath hitched in your throat, and you knew. Your last safe haven in the entire universe, the last place you could call home, was being torn to pieces. The place that held so many memories; that you secretly loved from the very first day, even while repeating your father’s scornful comments about the school.

That place would be gone forever, if your side won. And it was your doing. No one would step in and save you from that truth.

That was when you knew you didn’t want to have any more hand in destroying the world. That it was not your side. It was time to own your mistakes and start fixing them.

You just hoped it wasn’t too late.


End file.
